Jason Myers said that it's "a sick feeling" to go through a season at Bowman Gray Stadium and not win a race.

Myers waited until nearly the last moment for a breakthrough last year. He won't have to sweat it out this year, having notched his first win in last night's Renegade 100 at the season's midway point.

"We've had a few years not winning, and it makes you not want to come back the next year," he said. "This year we came in super pumped -- coming off that win in the next-to-last race last season and then the TV show ( Madhouse ) -- but ever since the first week we've been chasing our tail because the car has been absolute junk.

"Two or three weeks ago we'd have been lucky to have finished top five. But we've finally gotten the car dialed in. I knew we were strong enough tonight. All we needed was a good draw to give us a shot."

Myers got that, drawing the outside pole. Lee Jeffreys, who managed to trim two more points off Burt Myers' lead in season standings for the featured Modified Division, had an advantage, though -- drawing the pole.

But Jason Myers zipped past Jeffreys on a double-file restart in the 15th lap and hung on through five more double-file restarts for his eighth career victory. Tim Brown finished second and Chris Fleming third.

Jeffreys, trying to chase down Burt Myers in this season's title race, missed a chance to pick up ground. He cut his deficit from 25 to 11 points last week with a win, but he couldn't hold last night's race lead and finished fifth.

"The car was off a little bit," Jeffreys said. "We were just a little loose getting in the corners. I hate I didn't capitalize on it, but that's OK. We finished top five, and we get to roll it on the trailer."

Burt Myers finished sixth, averting a potential points disaster. He drew the 24th starting spot in a 25-car field, but he made proverbial lemonade out of a lemon.

"It seems like the last three weeks that's been our motto," Myers said. "Fortunately, we were been able to make something good out of it. We come to win, but sometimes over here you just have to take what you can get.

"This could have been real bad with Lee drawing the pole, and, really, we could have lost 50 points the last three weeks the way it's been for us, but we've been able to keep it to a minimum."

Brown led qualifying for the fifth time in eight races this season, with a lap of 13.433 seconds (67 mph) on the quarter-mile track, and said he would have been more of a threat to Jason Myers had it not been for an overheating car.

"I looked and the water temperature was about 270," Brown said. "I like to see it at 230 to 240, otherwise you start thinking about how expensive that motor is…. When I backed off a couple of car lengths it would go back down to 230.

"I finished second and we didn't ruin the motor. All in all, after the last five weeks I've had getting wrecked and all, I'll take a second tonight."

Tommy Neal and Taylor Branch won 20-lap races for the Sportsman Division. David Sumner won a 20-lap Street Stock race.